Gainesville Food Tour

I’m the WINNER! O.k. so here’s how it all started…My friend Caroline and her husband Ryan started this business “Gainesville Food Tour” and I have wanted to go on this tour for some time, but you know how it goes, life happens… So, last week was Gainesville Restaurant Week and the GRW Facebook page was running a contest to win a free ticket on the Gainesville Food Tour, and all you had to do is comment on the GRW Facebook page while tagging the Gainesville Food Tour. So I commented, and I won! The catch, it was only good for this Sunday’s tour…well I’m in!

It was a beautiful day for a walking food tour. Above is my friend Caroline leading the tour, below is her husband Ryan giving us some Gainesville history while we enjoyed our first plate of a spinach, swiss cheese bake and a savory french toast casserole. Next we learned more Gainesville history across from the newly re-built Bo Diddley Plaza.

As we walked to the next place to eat we passed this quaint little place that once was an old gas station, Caroline had pictures of the original gas station so we could see how similar it is to the way it looks today.

Still walking to the next place, Caroline points out these horse shoes in the brick walk. This is an ingenious guerrilla marketing plan from a business from back in the day, who had these horse shoes coming from different directions leading to his shop!

In the same area, we were called to attention to all the painted buildings. This is part of the #352walls project, art of the Gainesville Urban Art Initiative. These are just a few of the examples that can be found around Gainesville.

The next food stop was already one of my favorites. Looseys! The burgers are delicious, even without the bun, and the truffle fries are to die for.

Then we headed to a new place, Mojo Hogtown Bar-b-que whose location is full of history and ghost stories. This place is as cool as it looks, we even got to see how and where they smoke the meats. We had burnt ends and pulled chicken. YUM!

The manager of Mojo talking to us about how they smoke the meat and make all the food from scratch. Now following Ryan, we head to Liquid Ginger, housed in the old Gainesville Sun (newspaper) location. We had a delicious pad thai with eggplant, yes I even ate it. Those who know me, know I am a picky eater…

After all was said and done, our last stop was Hyppo Popsicles. We were treated with a pop and could even have them dipped in chocolate. I had the Mocha Cheesecake dipped in chocolate. Here Ryan is getting a picture of a couple who were on our tour.

Here Caroline is also getting a picture of some of our tour-mates. I just loved all the little touches that Ryan and Caroline incorporated into the walk, including having “Gainesville Food Tour names”.

We really had a great time, and think you would too. If you live in the Gainesville area, or may be passing through, schedule a tour. Tours change from time to time, and they have started some evening tours, and may plan a special tour for the Halloween season…it is worth the time, worth the food, worth the money to schedule a tour today! You can see more on my Instagram page @aasved_and_aasved